HR Case Study

HR CASE STUDY: UNITEL

Executive Summary

The change process has to be a carefully thought-out process since it affects all the company stakeholders from low to high hierarchy levels. This paper attempts to identify and analyze key human resource and employee relations issues in Unitel's case when the firm tried to introduce Vision 2022. This new cultural change required a transformation that was to impact all levels of the chain of command. The change required the managers to be communicative and gain the employees' trust for better operational and competitive performance. The issues were related to the cultural change itself, poor employee and industrial relations, such as those with the union members, and weak management practices. The recommendations aim to resolve the issues with Kotter's model for cultural change, soft HRM, theoretical models of participative leadership including motivational and exchange-based models, and workplace partnership with the highlights of the pluralist theory of employee relations.

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Identification, Analysis of Key HR and ER Issues and Their Recommendations 4

Issue Identification: Cultural Change 4

Issue 1: Employees readiness for adapting to change 5

Issue 2: Inability of the new change strategy to take employees

into trust and making them feel that they are wanted for it 5

Recommendations 6

Issue Identification: Poor Employee Relations 7

Issue 3: Lack of communication between managers and employees 7

Issue 4: Inclusivity in decision making 7

Issue 5: Perceptions that Vision 2022 is only about low levels

and not high levels 8

Issue 6: Misalignment of change strategy goals with the employee goals 9

Recommendations 9

Issue Identification 7: Poor Management Performance 10 Recommendations 11

Issue Identification 8: Weak Industrial Relations 12

Recommendations 12

Conclusion and Recommendations 13

Reference List 15

HR Case Study: Unitel

One of the largest telecommunications companies in Asia-Pacific is Unitel, which, after privatization, had to deal with increased competition from foreign and local firms. To cope with the increasingly competitive demands, the senior management was convinced that a change in the company's culture, which was an inevitable requirement with privatization, had to be brought. There were several problems faced by this firm when Vision 2022 was announced with the help of an external consultancy firm. This change strategy was meant to change how teams work, how actions should be taken, and how possibility thinking should be implemented. The further sections of this report would look into the key HR and ER issues that would impact its operations and competitiveness. The paper also aims to present recommendations for those issues in the end.

Identification, Analysis of Key HR and ER Issues, and Their Recommendations

Issue Identification: Cultural Change

With the introduction of Vision 2022, there was a clear change in the company's culture since the outside source, a consultancy firm, recommended that Unitel be established as the best enterprise in the region. This had some positive steps, such as standardization of Unitel with improvements in communications between the higher management and the low-level workers, enabling decisions to be made at low levels, developing a customer needs tracking facility, and formulation of U-test decision-making process. However, employees did not feel a sense of inclusion when an outside firm was hired for new change implementation, and they were not motivated. Cultural change cannot be achieved with a top-down approach; rather, it should create an environment of inclusion of employees' hearts and souls into the company and a shared perception of how things should be done (Walker & Soule 2017).

Issue 1: Employees' readiness for adapting to change

According to Kotter, there are obstacles based on which employees are reluctant to accept organizational change. These factors are the formal structure, no discouragement from the upper management from taking actions for new vision implementation, lack of skills, or...

…essential part of an organization's cultural change since it would help develop employees' attitudes for bringing a change initiative. Administrative, procedural, and structural changes would be required for the better overall performance of the company. The readiness level can be modified based on the level of acceptance or rejection of the employees. Employee engagement and participation should be present on all hierarchical levels since the organization's cultural change would be applied to all and would impact low to high levels. Their trust can be gained by decreasing their resistance to change since that would help improve organizational commitment and the management itself.

Some of the recommended solutions for the identified issues are as follows:

For the cultural change issue, Kotter's model for change can be applied in Unitel, where a sense of urgency should be created but with employees' inclusion as they are the company's internal strength. After privatization, potential threats should be identified, which is the increased competitiveness, and employee empowerment should be guaranteed.

For poor employee relations issues, soft HRM can be used as opposed to Michigan's hard HRM. Some of the strategies that could be applied in Unitel are competitive salaries for the employees with increased engagement, an appraisal system for professional training and development for the new cultural change in Unitel. Also, McGregor's Theory Y would effectively escalate employee readiness for the change and improve their motivation levels.

For poor management practices, transformative leadership in the form of participative leadership would be valuable since theories like the motivational model and exchange-based model would provide a platform for the staff's better work performance and enhance organizational culture.

For weak industrial relations, workplace partnership can be a viable solution for teaming up with union members. The pluralist theory highlights that remunerations would be distributed equally among all the agreement participants,…